


Hearth and Home

by The_Plaid_Slytherin



Category: Original Work
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Kings & Queens, M/M, Mpreg, Resolved Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:14:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23745142
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/pseuds/The_Plaid_Slytherin
Summary: King Theodore has been waiting for his husband Sir Miles to return before the birth of their child.
Relationships: Pining Pregnant King/His Arranged Marriage Husband Who Just Caught Feelings
Comments: 10
Kudos: 94
Collections: What Fen Do (Instead of Going Outside), When Death Loves Flamingos





	Hearth and Home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ba_lailah](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ba_lailah/gifts).



Theodore settled on the couch, opened his book, and, moments later, closed it and went to the window again. 

Miles was below, just as he'd been five minutes before, walking among the sparring men. Though they were not using live steel, they still wore full plate armor, and the late afternoon sun glinted off their pauldrons. 

Miles had removed his helm and perhaps that was why Theodore could not concentrate on his book.

He settled into the window seat, having given up concentrating. The baby would not stay still, which partly contributed to his restlessness. It would not be long until the birth, and Theodore could not keep his hand off his belly, could not resist feeling his child's movements. _An heir at long last._

The gods had been good to him, both in seeing that he got pregnant immediately after his marriage—he thought it surely had been the wedding night for Miles had been gone days after. And then the gods had seen his husband safely home, the invasion from the north pushed back for now. Miles had distinguished himself in battle, as expected of the first knight of Fyria. The marriage contract had been fulfilled. 

There was only one problem. 

The contract they had signed had said nothing about falling in love, and Theodore was becoming increasingly certain that was what was happening now. 

**

Miles returned to the keep exhausted from an afternoon of sparring. The war might have been over, but Miles did not trust that the danger from the north was fully past. They would stop at nothing to increase their territory and Fyria had to always be on their guard. Which reminded him, there was something for which he needed the king's approval… 

Since their marriage, King Theodore had let Miles do much as he pleased in military matters. He had insisted that Miles was the one with the knowledge and, patting his ever-increasing belly, had claimed that it would be ages before he had a sword in his hand. That had made things easy during the war, when Miles would have had to wait weeks for a rider to reach the capital and return to the front with the king's approval, but now he found he wanted to consult with the king, even though Theodore had never told him his ability to make decisions for his own troops had been rescinded. It just didn't feel right when the king was right there.

He knocked on the door. "Excellence? It's Sir Miles."

There was what sounded like a flurry of activity from behind the heavy oak door. _Perhaps he was in a state of undress._

That seemed like the most likely explanation, but it gave Miles a twinge of disappointment. Yes, it had been an arranged marriage, of the most unemotional sort possible, and they had only slept together until it had been clear Theodore was with child. But they were still _married_. Miles had been laboring under the assumption that one day they might lie with one another again, to produce a spare, perhaps. 

It wasn't as though he was looking forward to that possibility, of course. He merely wanted to consider all possible eventualities like the knight he was. 

"Come in!" 

Miles opened the door. Theodore was seated on the couch, reading a book upside down. _Would that our child will have even a fraction of the king's intellectual talents._

"Do you glean any further insights from reading it that way?" 

Theodore blinked, as though only just noticing he held the book upside down, but that was impossible. "Yes. Much." He tossed the book aside. "What brings you to my chambers, sir?" He rested his hand on his belly, and Miles's heart began to beat a bit faster. He had not seen him in a few days and was gratified at the sight of him. Their child would be born soon, and while it would be heir to the throne of Fyria, he hoped he would be able to contribute something to its upbringing.

"Excellence," he said, now finding it difficult to speak around the lump in his throat. "I come to you with a proposition."

Theodore blinked owlishly at him. "You do?" 

"For the defense of our northern border." 

"Oh." It must have been his imagination, but Theodore looked slightly disappointed by that. He must have been wrong, though, for what king would object to the defense of his kingdom? 

"I have a proposal for increasing the men staffing the northern fortresses. The enemy was soundly defeated, but it never pays to be too careful, Excellence." 

"Of course. I trust your judgment in all things, Mi—Sir Miles." 

Miles ducked his head. "You could call me just plain Miles, Excellence. If you want."

"All right." Theodore looked down at his belly. "You can call me Theodore. If you want." 

Miles swallowed hard. "Theodore." 

There was very little to say after that, but Miles found himself looking for an excuse to stay. Theodore started suddenly. 

He took a step forward. "Ex—Theodore, are you all right?" 

"I'm fine." He rubbed his belly. "The little one is ready to come out." 

"Now?" Miles tensed to run for the midwife. 

"No." Theodore smiled. "We have some time yet—if the little prince or princess doesn't kick his or her way out." 

Miles could only stare. He was not prepared, by any stretch of the imagination. "D… do you think you know what it is?"

"The midwife says it may be a girl." He settled back on the couch and patted the seat next to him. "Come sit by me, Miles."

Miles woodenly stepped forward, heedless of the fact that he had come straight from the yard and wanted a bath and change of clothes. 

"Theodore," he said quietly. 

"Yes?" There was a hint of a smile on the king's lips. The lips he had not kissed since they had made the child he carried. 

Miles found quite suddenly that he wanted to kiss them again, before their child was born. He knew the king's parents had had a similar arranged marriage that had not resulted in love, but Miles's own parents had been a love match. 

"Feel. She—or he—is moving again."

Theodore took Miles's hand and laid it on his belly. And then he felt it. The child squirmed within. He must have smiled, for Theodore smiled, too. "I hadn't realized you had never felt it… I am sorry I never asked you before."

"No." Miles didn't take his hand away; he wanted to feel a while longer. "I was away and busy and then…" He paused. "I was afraid you did not wish to see me."

He was vaguely aware of Theodore's breath catching. "I thought perhaps you did not wish to see me."

Miles winced. He could see how Theodore might have gotten that impression. Once he'd returned from the north, he'd thrown himself into his work, training men, recruiting more troops and putting them through their paces. 

He could still feel the child squirming. 

"I know," he said quietly. "It was never that I didn't want to see you. I… wanted the kingdom to be secure before our child was born."

"But it is, isn't it? I am the king, I should know." 

Miles smiled, rubbing slow circles on Theodore's belly. "Yes. It is. But still, I worry." 

"I am glad my first knight is concerned with the kingdom and fighting valiantly in my stead while I am indisposed. But…" Theodore reached up and cupped Miles's face. "I also want my husband at my side for my child's birth." 

Miles was aware of his face growing hot; he might actually have been blushing. 

All the blood in his body seemed to rush right to his face as Theodore kissed him. 

It began chastely but it was not long before they were kissing open-mouthed, seemingly unable to get their fill of each other. 

"That is much more like it," Theodore said. 

Miles said nothing before seizing the back of his king's neck and kissing him again.


End file.
